Lining
by Lineoflights
Summary: From one to another, how thick is the line keeping things separate? Either way, that magazine probably wasn't a good thing. 7 shorts. SakixNodoka
1. Chapter 1

From one point of view, it could be said that Takei Hisa was slacking off and not fulfilling the obligations set by her position. From another, it could be said that she was doing her duty, only in a strange way. From a third perspective, she was doing everything that was supposed to.

The people that were of the last opinion were the ones that were aware of the fact that chasing a person around the entire school for a certain magazine was technically part of the job.

This particular magazine was created from scratch by a group at school. Except for the paper. And the ink. And the bindings. So, really, the only thing that was done at the school was the text and the pictures. Which the staff argued were the most important parts. However, despite the producers' efforts with the magazine made almost entirely from scratch, their work just hadn't gained any recognition throughout the school. For one, they had never done any advertising at all, which meant that nobody knew they existed in the first place. Secondly, most of those those that did know the magazine existed discovered quite quickly how false the articles were, and didn't bother any more. It was just a waste of time. The only ones who actually read it were the ones who were new to the school or really wanted to know what wasn't happening at school.

Last year, there was an effort to get rid of the group, as it was seen as completely useless and a waste of resources, but some very careful wording in the contract signed by the writers allowed for a loophole to appear and save the magazine.

Despite only existing on a technicality, the magazine was still part of the school, and required a quick looking over to make sure that nothing written inside would be terribly damaging to the school. Terribly being the key word.

However, for some strange reason, the book failed to show up in the box by its deadline. Having left all the other works to her fellow members, Hisa decided she had nothing better to do than to go out and try and figure out what was going on.

It hadn't taken too much work to find the lead organizer, as he was hanging around just outside the school building, looking rather nervous. After a quick scan of the scene, the girl decided that the thing he was nervously hiding behind his back was her target, and moved in.

"So, why are you hanging around here?" Questioned the mahjong player, having carefully moved up next the boy. "Well, I suppose that doesn't matter. Magazine. Here. Now." She demanded, holding out an arm. To some small gland of surprise, but not much, he began running away,

And, having done the logical thing by chasing after him, Hisa found herself running throughout the school trying to procure one simple magazine. Despite the slight lead he had gotten by suddenly taking off, the writer just could not run very efficiently, and had been cornered in no time. With a look of triumph on her face procured the "not-so-precious" book and sent her latest victim off.

Now that she had procured the cargo, the next thing the girl did was skim through the magazine. After all, if there was something that they wanted to keep a secret so badly it was worth running away for, then it must be interesting. As she came across a certain spread, a smirk spread across the redhead's face, knowing she had found the problem. It was-

"Hm? President? What are you doing here?"

Speak of the devil.

An idea quickly finding itself into her head, Hisa smiled a bit and simply handed the magazine to Saki, who accepted it somewhat hesitantly, before trying to get away as naturally as possible. She wouldn't want to be nearby when Saki realized what she had seen.

Saki, on the other hand, was simply confused as to why the president had just handed her a magazine. Figuring she was meant to read it, the brunette took a glance down and...

Why was there a picture of her and Nodoka-chan kissing?

* * *

So, uh yeah. There's a lot of stuff I want to say here, but most of it is just pointless and would take up space, so I'll refrain and keep to the basics. First off, apologies for the shortness. I was planning to make the entire thing one, big, chapter, but that would just take too long, and it worried me. So I decided to split it up. Which... also worries me, since I haven't had the greatest luck with chaptered stories. Anyways, I'll try to get the next one up soon, but I make nothing definite.

Please Review.


	2. Chapter 2

Many apologies for the late update. Wanted to get it up sooner, but then I realized how I hadn't done what I wanted to do with the first chapter, and had to change up the rest of the story a little bit, since I didn't want to make anyone bother reading the beginning again. I still changed a bit of it, but nothing that should make you go back and have to read it again.

* * *

Nodoka sighed as she fell to her bed. Reporters could just be so tiring sometimes. Then again, the girl considered, it was partly her fault, having answered that call despite it being far too late to be anyone that she felt like talking to at the time. Still, she had refused the request for an interview at first, but the other end of the line had been really pushy. Something about "getting a comment on that article". Now, since she had gone home by the time Hisa began her dramatic chase earlier in the day, Nodoka was unaware of what this article was. Lacking this necessary information, she finally gave in and accepted to meet.

Taking a quick glance at the clock, the mahjong player quickly got up to get ready for bed. Even if it was hastily arranged just now, she did need to be ready and awake for that interview.

Upon arriving at the restaurant that she was to meet the two who had made plans with her the previous night, Nodoka took a look at the time and noticed that she was a few minutes early. The place seemed very calm, and was rather spacious. There were a few people occupying a table here and there, but the place was not crowded by any means. Nodoka liked it that way. Even if she was giving words that would be released in some way or another, she did not particularly like being overheard.

Absently shifting her gaze behind her, Nodoka instantly froze up. Three tables behind her sat Saki, absently looking at the menu and wondering what to order. For a moment, the pink-haired girl considered going up to her friend to go somewhere else. Nodoka knew that her teammate had been gaining some notoriety lately, and if seen, might be approached to join in the interview. From what she knew about the reporters from their prior conversation, the blue-eyed mahjong player could see that happening.

Nodoka wasn't against Saki-chan having an interview, but she wanted the girl to stay hers- well, no, that wasn't quite accurate, the girl decided in her mind, but either way, she did not want her lucky friend to stay nearby.

Before any action could be taken, though, a man and a woman, both carrying a camera with them appeared through the window behind Saki. Judging by the way they walked, they were professionals. Coming to the obvious conclusion that they were the ones that she had made plans with, Nodoka silently turned around and waited for the duo to enter the building.

As her friend slowly turned around, Saki finally decided on what to order, and spoke to the nearby waitress before looking up at the ceiling and getting lost in her thoughts.

Having gotten introductions out of the way rathe quickly, the trio consisting of Nodoka and the two reporters made small talk and waiting for food to arrive to start the interview. All this conversation had calmed down the girl that was worried for her friend, and she was starting to get into the mood and just hope that the two across from her did not think of looking up a little bit and seeing who was there. It was a small hope, but a hope nonetheless.

Soon enough, the orders had arrived, and the atmosphere of the conversation changed into a more formal and stiff one. Wasting no time at all, the man started his first question.

"So, Haramura-san, would you have any romantic interests at the time?" He spoke calmly, showing no change in expression. Nodoka on the other hand, almost fell over due to his bluntness. An image of Saki also popped into her mind, but before the girl went to dwell too hard on that or what it meant, she recovered and composed herself. Besides, she still had a question to answer. Of course, the question was somewhat strange.

"Well, I'm not very sure what you mean by that."

...So the girl decided not to answer it to the fullest of her ability. The two reporters looked slightly dismayed at the response they received, but nonetheless carried on, remembering their plans if they received an answer like this.

"I see. But then, if you would be interested in someone, who would it be?" Inwardly sighing as this question entered her ears, Nodoka took a moment to think and shut out all unwanted pictures before trying to answer with yet another ambiguous statement. And as such the game of "try to get the girl to answer a question in a way that lets us expand" continued, with Nodoka doing her best to stop all the attacks made at her.

During all this, Saki still hadn't looked up to see who it was just a few tables in front of her, now having her attention focused on the plate that had arrived moments earlier.

Eventually, the duo got tired of trying to find a lead-in topic and decided to come out with the important things.

"...Well, actually, the main reason we asked you to come out and talk to us is because of this," the woman explained while reaching into her bag, "apparently, a magazine that is published at your school, Kiyosumi, contains this article about you and Miyanaga Saki, a teammate of yours."

Now, if it hadn't already been clear earlier, this special magazine was the one published from "scratch" by a group at school that wasn't read by almost anyone. However, since the reporters were obviously not students, this copy of the magazine that had found its way into their hands was no less trustable than any other source, and offered a juicy lead.

Uninterested, Nodoka accepted the magazine from the pair across the table and turned it around to make it readable. Taking a look, she instantly felt blood rush to her face as she looked at the title and all the hearts that were everywhere on the pages. Her and Saki-chan? It was a pleasant idea, Nodoka supposed while bringing up some more "unpleasant" mental images, but sh-

"Comments?"

Having been brought back to reality by the words of the one who had handed her the magazine, Nodoka suddenly became very worried about the sight behind her as she stammered out an answer.

"U-Um, w-well, I don't think that this magazine is very a-accurate..." Nodoka responded, trailing off at the end. Not taking any satisfaction from that halfhearted answer, the man pushed his face in closer to Nodoka's in a very strange manner.

"Is that all you have to... say?" The man stated, with all of the intensity he had at the beginning of his statement slowly dying off as he turned to his partner. "Say, isn't that Miyanaga Saki herself over there?" He stated in a questioning way, already sure of his answer while pointing at the girl.

Miraculously, nobody had gotten in any of the three tables between Nodoka and Saki's during the entire interview.

As the duo tried to hide their smiles, Nodoka slunk into her chair, wondering just why things were going so strangely.

* * *

So yeah, I'll get the next one up sooner. (For real this time). Anyways, since I'm curious, I'll have a poll up in my profile asking what part of this I should work on first. Please vote!

Anyways, please review. I'll try to respond to as many of them as I can.


	3. Chapter 3

So I'm late. Again. Even later than last time, somehow amazingly. This is mostly just plot progression to get into the next chapter, so hopefully nothing here fails too much.

* * *

Saki stared at the flower that was placed in the middle of the table. Where else was she supposed to look? Looking at either of the two reporters across from her made the girl nervous, even without factoring in the intense aura that was coming from them. Looking at the pink-haired girl next to her, on the other hand, made Saki feel rather embarrassed.

...Not that clinging on to Nodoka's arm didn't, but Saki was a bit more worried about her safety from the reporters when she started doing that. The questions the two of them were asking weren't exactly helping the situation either.

"Well," the woman began once again, "I hope you'll forgive my bluntness, but have either of you been on any romantic outings together?" Both of the students at the table were becoming increasingly worried about how the supposed professionals across from them had even gotten hired in the first place. The duo seemed to go out of their way to make the two girls feel uncomfortable. Those questions they were asking weren't helping. In any way whatsoever.

"Umm," Saki was beginning to wonder just what the problem was with her, magazines, and romantic relations with pink-haired teammates. In the first place, the girl considered, she didn't even like Nodoka-chan like that. Despite what that voice in the back of her head was saying about this being denial. It was the same voice that told the girl that clinging onto someone's arm because of a few questions wasn't the most innocent thing in the world.

Saki really liked ignoring that voice.

As the silence that came with the idea of not answering questions hung in the air, the woman inwardly cursed. Writing about any of this interview was going to be _such_ a big pain to make interesting.

"I'm sure that you're wondering why we've been asking you two these questions," Both Saki and Nodoka nodded eagerly at this, "but this magazine says many things about the relationship between the two of you."

The two girls took another glance at the magazine that had been placed to the side. Saki didn't like looking at it because it just didn't make any sense. Nodoka didn't like looking at it because it would make her wonder just how strange you had to be to actually write something like this.

Now, if a person familiar with where the magazine was published ever saw it, they would know instantly how wrong it was. Writing stories about how a person that was still living actually died two months ago did not do much to help credibility. However, if a person such as either of the two reporters that were having trouble getting answers at the moment looked at the magazine, they would have no idea how wrong anything her was. Having image editing skills that could make things look realistic tended to draw in unsuspecting readers.

"But that magazine isn't true," Nodoka bluntly said, trying to stay calm.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," Saki continued for her friend, "I'm sure that there isn't any romantic attraction between the two of us. We would know, wouldn't we?" The girl smiled, ignoring the fact that the voice was acting up and slowly gaining credibility.

"Alright," the woman resigned, shaking her head. "If you say so."

"I guess we're done here, then," the man declared, bringing an abrupt end to the conversation. Quickly gathering his equipment, he began walking away, motioning for his partner to follow him.

That left two girls that were slowly becoming introduced to the idea of "having a romantic relationship with the dear friend and teammate sitting next to me".

The problem of "they just made us pay for them, didn't they?" wasn't as prevalent here.

* * *

Yes, the duo of reporters was so mean they made Saki and Nodoka pay for them. How mean.

Anyways, feel free to drop a review mentioning just what I need to work on. I'll get back to you much faster than I update.


	4. Chapter 4

I am amused that despite "Update Speed" being the most/only voted thing in the poll, it's not getting any better. Should try to work on that.

This was supposed to be only half of this chapter, but I split it since that let's me end with something else.

* * *

The girl watched as a boy who appeared sorely incompetent walked along an alley. She had noticed him while looking for someone else, and couldn't pass up the chance to smite someone like him. Still, she made no move, even when her new target was right there. There was no need to confront him right now, and she wanted to observe a little longer to try and grasp his nature. What she had seen so far only reinforced her already negative opinion of him, but she would keep watching. Just in case.

Nodoka, on the other hand, was walking around town. Well, walking wasn't exactly the right word. She was moving as fast as she could without running in an attempt to chase after Saki, who was going through town rather quickly. For a second, Nodoka was secretly amazed that the girl hadn't tripped over something yet. Then she realized that she was falling behind, and moved to catch up.

The girl sighed. Why was she wasting her time trailing this idiot again? The only thing she had come to realize during the whole time was that he could really use some help with life itself. On second thought, the girl realized, she had already known that. So, really, trailing the man had not revealed anything that could possibly be used in a productive manner.

The good news was that Nodoka had finally caught up with Saki. The bad news was that the girl had every intention of continuing to zoom about. It wasn't every day that she had the company of her pink-haired friend. Granted, she was moving around so quickly that she had almost lost said pink-haired friend. Slightly panting for breath, Nodoka noticed Saki's eyes light up.

"Ah! Look!" Nodoka called, hoping to distract her fellow student before she started zooming about again. When Saki turned, Nodoka quickly looked to her right and pretended to be interested in whatever was there. "...Postcards."

Really, Nodoka sighed to herself, this was the best she could do? Use postcards to distract a very good friend of hers. Her blue eyes then widened in surprise when Saki really did walk up next to her. With a smile on her face.

It was deadly.

Saki had no clue why Nodoka was interested in postcards, but that was why she was here in the first place. To hopefully learn more about the one standing right next to her. "So why do you need one of these?"

"Well..." Nodoka panicked. She was still recovering from that smile that had been dropped on her earlier. Taking a deep breath, Nodoka tried to act normally. "...I just thought the design looked nice," unfortunately for her, acting like she usually does around Saki did nothing to help her situation.

Outside, a pair of reporters who had recently not gotten anything useful for an article despite a very plausible and intriguing lead were annoyed. In rage, the man took the magazine that had inspired them to ask for an interview in the first place and ripped it. Well, he tried to rip the whole thing at first, but failed. Instead, the man ripped out the pages that contained the article about the love between Nodoka and Saki and ripped those pages apart.

It was sad, really, how the two ended up causing the exact thing they wanted to happen without even realizing it.

* * *

I just realized that, with all the changes I've made, the title of this story does/will not make any sense. Woo?

Please review.


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